The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-02-27

hour after the trouble began an orderly from
headquarters brought around order. 1t said:
"'Regimental commanders will issue ration
of whisky to each officer and man.
up. S-Give 'em double ration
"The army was not exactly temperance So
ciety. pledged to total abstinence. and you may /
well believe that this order was received with |
great enthusiasm 1t was not long till the COM |
missary' was distributed, each man receiving his |
portion in his canteen or tin cup. An limos |
colonel mounted stump ana, as he held up his |
canteen. declared that q man who wouldn't get |
drunk that night didn't deserve to have coun- |
try; and if any man of his regiment should be
found sober in one hour By the watch, he would |
be tried on the spot by drum-head eoure-mar-
tai. He then set an example by enptying his
canteen at single pull. while the boys cheered
with tremendous vigor.
Under the exhiiarating influence OF .hs liq-
the din became simply infernal-even that
word seems weak and meaningless to deserlbe
such scene. There no violence, no Eight
ing; every body had had enough of that 1t vas
simply happy drunk all around: Thousands
of voices joined in singing the old army songs
Battle Cry of Freedom Red. White and
Blue Tramp, Tramp, John Browns Body
and the rude parodies of Dixie and Bonnie
Blue Flag If harmony was lacking the def
cheney was made up hundred-fold in the vast
volume of sound. Now and then someone would
start up the doxology. Praise God, from whom
all blessings flow.' to the tune of old Hun
0reu. ana those ieatner-Iunge0 veterans WOuiu
sing it as it was never sung before There wasn't
thought of irreverence about it, either. They
sung it with the spirit and with the understand
ing. Also as truly as ever did the worshpers at
Methodist camp meeting
Men did all sorts of grotesane and ridiculous
things They climbed trees and yelled from
among the branches; they made heroic speeches
from logs and stumps; they turned their clothes
inside out; they rode one another on poles-they
did everything that great fertility of in
this direction could suggest. At the headquar
tors of our brigade horse bucket full of egg
nogg was made aud the general and his staff
INDUCED in copious libatons. After several
rounds they sailed forth and seized the in
struments of the band and formed for parade
through the camp. The general headed the pro-
cession with the bass drum, which he pounded so
furiously that he broke in one of the heads. The
staff officers. with horns, blew the most wildly
discordant blasts AS they marched hither and
thither. regimental and company officers and
hundreds of soldiers fell in behind the general
and his staff, until the column of bowling luna
ties was quarter of mile long.
Now, there are, no doubt, in this present
year OF our Lord. many most excellent people
who will say that the soldiers of the Fourth
Corps did very reprehensibe thing. in getting
drunk that night. While. perhaps, agreeing
with them general principles will say that
no human being unless he has been there can
rise to the full comprehension OF such an occa-
sion. 1t was before the days of the temperance
crusade. and the provocation was extraordinary.
IL there was. since the world was created,
An excuse that would hold water for a tempo
rary lapse from sobriety, it was then and there.
Four years of toiling and suffering, such as
others know not, of weary marches and vigils
by day and night through fierce heat and
beating storm; of facing the pitess bullets and
screaming shell, amidst awfnl scenes of death
| and human anguish: long months and years that
| had thinned regiments of a thousand men down
| to a hundred-all were past, the end had come,
| and before the eyes of these SCARED and war
| worn veterans arose, in moment, blessed pict-
| ures of peace and home! Do you wonder that
| they INDUCED in these wild and extravgant
| demonstrations of joysl Added to these were
the glad feelings Of victory at last, after all the
| blood and wretchedness and the patriotic re-
joicing over a nation saved by their valor and
| sacrifices. Let me ask if you wouldn't have
| been very likely to make a fool of yourself for
| the time being If you had been there Let us
| hope that the recording angel yelled her face
/ that night
| gap more than mile from the main camp In
the excitement caused by the dispatch they were
/ forgotten. When the riot broke out, with the
| sound of the artillery and musketry, they
| thought great fight was going and stood all
| night in line of battle, with loaded arms. mo-
| mentarilv expecting to be ordered to the scene
of conflict Not till the next morning did they
| learn the cause of the disturbance. Several fam
lilies, living within mile two of camp,
| aroused from their slumbers by the noise. fed in
terror to the mountains and spent the night, well
nigh crazed with fear.
THE next day the tidings came that Presi
| dent Lincoln had been murdered. The revou
ton of feeling awful. Thousands of swarthy
| veterans, whose eyes had long been unused to
tears wept like children when the news. which
they at 6rst refusedIto believe, was full confirmed
and they knew that Father Abraham whose
name had been upon their lips thousand times
in song and story, had been stricken down b.
the hand of an assassin"